Archive for the ‘John Barnard’ tag

We’re just about at the end of our series of stories on the evolution of Ferrari from the 1940s to the present day. It’s just as well, as not only are we really ramping up our photo shoots, but our summer events schedule starts on Thursday with the first cruise-in of the season—if you’re in the neighborhood, swing on by on alternate Thursdays.

More than any other carmaker, Ferrari is and always has been a builder of racecars. A glance at the quarter-billion-Euro budget for a single season of F1 gives a glimpse at the scale of their operation, and the point of building street cars for then has always been to finance the racing operation. Maybe that’s why, rather than a flash in the pan, Ferrari comes back again and again, decade after decade, to the podium. Today’s car, their 1997 F310B Formula 1 Grand Prix car, is one that with the help of Michael Schumacher took them to the very peak of the sport once again.

After many years without much Formula One racing success, Ferrari approached the 1996 season with a freshly designed car and a young talent named Michael Schumacher. The F310 was powered by a three-liter V-10 engine, the first-ever 10-cylinder fitted to a Ferrari. It wore a low-slung nose although the rest of the field had abandoned that style in favor of the aerodynamic theory that it should sit high. The man behind this project was none other than chief designer, John Barnard. He was no stranger to Formula 1 or Ferrari, and as the season unfolded, it was clear that his F310 showed promise but needed further development.

Michael Schumacher had no trouble getting comfortable on his new team, and scored outright wins in Spain, Belgium and Italy. Unfortunately, co-driver Eddie Irvine struggled with retirements in ten of sixteen races. In the end, Ferrari was second and Williams-Renault held the title. As the season unfolded with disappointment, Ferrari replaced Barnard with Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne.

For 1997, Ferrari assembled the team of Schumacher, Brawn and Byrne, who by 1999 won their first of an amazing six straight constructors’ championships. Brawn and Byrne quickly went to work on the F310 and prepared a more developed version for the 1997 season, the F310B. Aerodynamics and reliability improved, but still the F310B had a difficult time against the Williams-Renault FW19. The final result of the 1997 season will forever be controversial, but it is widely believed that Michael Schumacher, knowing he was the better driver but in an inferior car, blocked title challenger Jacques Villeneuve in frustration when he tried to pass him to victory.

The F310 and F310B won an impressive eight Grands Prix, landed on 22 podiums, held 7 pole positions and scored 172 points. It was the genesis of the Ferrari’s most important time in modern racing, and set the tone for the F300, which would also take the championship to the final round in 1998.

With the Scuderia’s undeniable and unprecedented success in the past ten years, combined with the recent retirement of the legendary Michael Schumacher, this important car from the dawn of the “age of Ferrari” in modern F1 racing is now, and will forever be, highly sought after by fans of the marque – and the man. Furthermore, with the factory’s Corsa Cliente program, it is possible to experience the thrill of a modern Formula 1 car, with the race support and backup previously available only to front line drivers.